Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Consultation Update

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: My Right Honourable friend the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations (The Rt Hon. Michael Gove MP) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement:Today I have launched two formal consultations on proposals to improve the planning system to support measures in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.PLANNING FEESPlanning application fees provide essential income for local planning authorities to be able to deliver their planning service.This consultation seeks views on proposals to increase planning fees by 35 per cent for major applications and 25 per cent for all other applications, including proposals for fees indexation, to support greater resourcing and financial sustainability for local planning authorities. The consultation also seeks views on how the Government can provide additional support for building capacity and capability in local planning authorities.All applicants should be able to benefit from a high-quality and timely planning service, so the consultation also asks for views on new performance measures.This consultation closes on 25 April 2023.PERMITTED DEVELOPMENT RIGHTSNational permitted development rights play an important role in the planning system, providing flexibility and reducing bureaucracy. This consultation asks for views on a new permitted development right for temporary recreational campsites and changes to existing rights to further support film-making and local authority-led electric vehicle charge points.In addition, and as committed to in the Government’s British Energy Security Strategy, this consultation seeks views on changes to the existing rights for solar equipment. As part of this, we are also proposing a new right to allow for the installation of solar canopies in ground-level off-street car parks in non-domestic settings.This consultation closes on 25 April 2023.A copy of both documents will be deposited in the Library of both Houses.

Ministry of Justice

Consultation on a small payments scheme for the Mental Capacity Act 2005

Lord Bellamy: My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice (Mike Freer) has made the following statement.‘Today I am publishing the government’s response to the consultation on a small payments scheme for the Mental Capacity Act 2005.The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) is a crucial piece of legislation that protects vulnerable individuals who may be unable to make decisions for themselves. The principles of the MCA guide us in empowering these individuals to make their own decisions when possible and supports their families and carers to make decisions in their best interest when necessary.It is a long-held principle that an adult must have proper legal authority to access or deal with property belonging to another adult. In cases where the adult lacks mental capacity, the MCA provides the framework for them to grant legal authority by appointing a lasting power of attorney (LPA) while they still have mental capacity, or for third parties to obtain legal authority through applications to the Court of Protection (CoP).Concerns have been raised that the existing CoP process for obtaining legal authority to access accounts on behalf of individuals who lack mental capacity creates barriers to access small value assets. This has particularly been highlighted in the case of accessing matured Child Trusts Funds, where a campaign by the families of young adults with learning disabilities has led to attention in both the Lords and CommonsIn response to these concerns, Government decided to examine whether there was a case for an alternative process to the current CoP deputyship where access to small funds was required. We consulted on a small payment scheme that would be run by financial services firms and permit access for six months to limited funds up to £2500 from one account belonging to an individual who lacks mental capacity without an order from the CoP being sought. The scheme set out to meet three aims:Scope: The scheme must be broad enough to be useful and avoid inadvertent discriminationSecurity: Assets of vulnerable individuals should not be subject to unacceptable financial risk; andSimplicity: The scheme must be straightforward and allow quicker access to limited funds than current processes, whilst being easy for financial service firms to implement.The consultation received 225 responses and provided the opportunity for key stakeholders from the financial, legal and disability sectors as well as parents and carers supporting those who lack mental capacity to share their concerns about the current system and opinions on the new proposal.The consultation provided clear evidence of the challenges faced in the current system. Most consistently respondents complained of the lengthy and complex CoP application forms, and the time taken to complete the application. It has also become apparent through the consultation that there is a general lack of awareness of the MCA. In many cases families and carers are often caught off guard when their child turns 18 as they were not aware of the MCA and the need to obtain legal authority to manage another person’s financial affairs if they lack capacity.I want to make it simpler and quicker for the people who care for individuals who lack mental capacity to access the funds on their behalf. The evidence demonstrates that legislating for a small payments scheme would fail to address the underlying challenges preventing access to small value assets. Instead, the best approach is to focus on addressing the underlying barriers in the current system to accessing small value assets. To do this, the government will work with the Court of Protection to improve application processing times and simplify court forms, and collaborate with OGDs, charities, and the finance sector to increase awareness of the MCA among parents and caregivers of young people without capacity as they transition to adulthood.Importantly, this approach will also maintain protections and support for vulnerable people and their rights. The steps outlined uphold the principles of the MCA to empower individuals without mental capacity to make their own property and affairs decisions when possible and support their families and caregivers to make decisions in their best interest when necessary. This is essential for protecting vulnerable individuals from fraud, abuse, and coercion.I hope the publication of this response will demonstrate the thorough consideration given to this issue and the impact on those individuals who lack capacity. As my predecessor Minister Pursglove said when launching the consultation, these individuals must come first and should not lose the protections provided by the MCA. It is my belief that this response rightly honours that.’

Department of Health and Social Care

England Rare Diseases Action Plan 2023

Lord Markham: My Hon Friend the Minister of State (Minister for Social Care) (Helen Whately) has made the following written statement:The Government has published England’s second Rare Diseases Action Plan today, on international Rare Disease Day.Approximately 3.5 million people in the UK are living with one of over 7,000 rare diseases, such as muscular dystrophies or Huntington’s disease. People living with rare diseases often face complex journeys to diagnosis, treatment and care.Our Action Plan is part of our continued commitment to improve the lives of those living with rare conditions, as outlined in the 2021 UK Rare Diseases Framework. It follows publication of England’s first Rare Diseases Action Plan in February 2022, and highlights progress made in the past year, as well as setting out 13 new actions for the year ahead.Key achievements in the last year include:changes to the UK National Screening Committee to support robust decision making within the constraints of more limited evidence bases, to help improve how decisions are made on newborn screening for rare diseases;extensive public engagement to support design of a whole genome sequencing research study embedded in the NHS to screen for up to 200 rare genetic conditions in newborns where early intervention could transform outcomes;identification of over 1,000 new, complex diagnoses for people with rare diseases, via the Genomics England Clinical Research Interface, to inform the most appropriate clinical care;expansion of innovative digital educational resources on rare diseases, which have had strong uptake by healthcare professionals;creation and rollout of a toolkit for virtual healthcare consultations, to improve care coordination for patients with complex, multi-system rare diseases;recruitment of over 2,500 new volunteers to the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) BioResource, to increase scientific understanding of rare diseases and facilitate improved diagnostics and treatments;completion of innovative research studies, such as the MELODY Covid-19 study, to inform targeted treatment policies for the rare diseases community.Our second Action Plan will continue to build on this record, adding significant new commitments against each of the Framework priorities, developed in close collaboration with members of the rare disease community. These include:addressing health inequalities for people living with rare diseases by gathering the evidence needed to include rare diseases in NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 Framework, enabling Integrated Care Systems to develop targeted actions to reduce these inequalities;changes to commissioning of services for rare diseases within NHS England, to improve coordination of pathways for access to specialist care, treatment, drugs, social care, mental health and special educational support for those living with rare diseases;seeking feedback from the rare disease community on how to improve NIHR’s Be Part of Research platform, to make it easier for people living with rare diseases to participate in clinical research.These actions are supported by recently announced government funding for ground-breaking research, including investment of nearly £790 million in 20 NIHR Biomedical Research Centres, and £12 million of funding to support the Medical Research Council (MRC)-NIHR UK Rare Disease Research Platform. This research forms the essential foundations to improve understanding, diagnoses and treatments of rare diseases, translating scientific breakthroughs into clinical advances.Under the Action Plan, the millions of people with rare diseases in England will see more efficient and equitable access to care and new treatments introduced. Over the coming year, we will closely monitor the progress of these actions, seeking input from those living with rare diseases to ensure we are measuring the outcomes that matter most. Progress will be reported in 2024, as part of England's commitment to report annually over the 5-year lifetime of the UK Rare Diseases Framework.Through this second action plan, we will continue to take steps towards achieving our overarching vision – delivering improvements in diagnosis, awareness, treatment and care, and creating lasting positive change for those living with rare diseases.

Report of the Organ Utilisation Group

Lord Markham: My Hon Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Primary Care and Public Health) (Neil O'Brien) has made the following written statement:The House will remember that, under this Government, Max and Keira’s law was introduced – a law that garnered all-party support - changing the legal basis of consent for organ donation to one of deemed consent, commonly referred to as ‘opt out’. At that time the Government committed to 700 additional transplants per year which reflected the overwhelming support of the population in helping others, after their death, through the gift of organ donation. Following this legislation, the Government set up the Organ Utilisation Group (OUG) under the expert chairmanship of Professor Sir Steve Powis to deliver improvements in the number of organs that are accepted and utilised for successful transplant in adult and paediatric patients. The House can be justly proud of the role that British clinicians and scientists have played in the history of successful transplantation. But not many realise that this leadership continues today, particularly in the field of new methods of organ preservation and perfusion. The OUG heard evidence that described the importance of continued support to maintain that leadership status both for patients in the United Kingdom and across the globe. The Government also wishes to pay tribute to patient groups, individual patients and their carers who gave time and consideration to significant engagement with the work of the OUG. It is clear the output of the report has benefited from this engagement to a significant extent. The Government welcomes the 12 recommendations in the report and note that many of these do not require extra resource; they simply need a different way of working, with increased collaboration across organisations that deliver the service. I am confident that the recommendations will give benefits to those in need of a transplant with the aim that all patients should have fair and equitable access to transplant services regardless of their background or heritage or where they live in the country. I also wish to recognise the donation and transplant teams across the country for their hard work during the pandemic. Their use of new collaborative processes have enabled people at the end of life who wished to donate to have these wishes honoured, and those patients who desperately needed a transplant to have that procedure performed, often through night-time surgery. Recommendations in the report also address the need for a robust and sustainable service that acknowledges this round-the-clock vital activity. The OUG heard evidence from national and international stakeholders, which led to the following themes and recommendations. Each recommendation is accompanied by supporting actions to inform implementation. Theme 1: Placing the patient at the heart of the serviceRecommendation 1: Patients who are being considered for transplantation, referral or listing must be supported and have equal access to services irrespective of their personal circumstances including ethnic, geographical, socio-economic status or sex.Recommendation 2: Transplant services must be run with reference to patient feedback, including frequent opportunities to listen and act on views from less heard voices. Theme 2: An operational infrastructure that maximises transplant potentialRecommendation 3: Standardised patient pathways must be developed and made available for each organ type, with well-defined timescales for each stage of the pathway. Data available for each stage of the pathway informs monitoring against best practice. Clinical Leads for Utilisation support the review of the data, to identify and drive local improvement initiatives.Recommendation 4: Transplant units must build on the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and increase further the collaborative effort across units.Recommendation 5: NHSE must undertake a comprehensive review of cardiothoracic services to ensure that services in place are sufficiently sustainable and resilient and are able to provide the best possible outcome for patients. Theme 3: Creating a sustainable workforce that is fit for the futureRecommendation 6: A National Transplant Workforce Template must be developed to provide definitions of the skill mix for an effective, safe and resilient transplant workforce that is fit for current and future demands. Theme 4: Data provision that informs decisions and drives improvementsRecommendation 7: The provision of data must be transformed, using digital approaches to provide access to complete, accurate and standardised data and information to everyone who needs it at critical decision points throughout the donation to transplantation pathway. Theme 5: Driving and supporting innovationRecommendation 8: National multi-organ centres for organ assessment and repair prior to transplantation must be established to provide the optimum practical steps to bring new techniques into everyday clinical therapy as rapidly as possible, to maximise the number and quality of organs available for transplant and support logistics at transplant units.Recommendation 9: A national oversight system must be established that makes the best use of the UK's world leading innovation in assessment, perfusion and preservation of donated organs. Theme 6: Delivering improvements through new strategic and commissioning frameworksRecommendation 10: All NHS trusts with a transplant programme must have a transplant utilisation strategy to maximise organ utilisation.Recommendation 11: National measurable outcomes must be defined and agreed in order to prioritise, monitor and evaluate the success of key strategies, tools and processes.Recommendation 12: Robust commissioning frameworks must be in place, with well-defined roles and responsibilities of the various agencies involved in organ transplantation, particularly focusing on the relationship between NHSBT and Commissioners. Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) across the agencies must be created to formalise the process for the joint commissioning of transplant services. The Government is grateful to Professor Sir Steve Powis and all the members and observers of the OUG. We have committed to an Implementation Oversight Group that will be led by the Department of Health and Social Care, working with expert stakeholders in organ utilisation to drive forward implementation of the recommendations. The House will remember many heartfelt and emotional interventions from members across all Parties at the time when Max and Keira’s law was passed. The recommendations in this report follow up on that important change in our legislation and, once properly implemented, will increase transplants for patients in desperate need of donated organs and tissues wherever it is safe to do so.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Marine Protection Update

Lord Benyon: My Right Honourable friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Dr Thérèse Coffey) has made the following Statement.I am announcing my intention to designate the first Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) – North East of Farnes Deep, Allonby Bay and Dolphin Head. These will contribute to the government’s vision under our UK Marine Strategy for ‘clean, healthy, safe, productive, and biologically diverse ocean and seas’. They will increase the scope and protection of protected areas at sea and will allow sites to fully recover, increasing resilience to climate change. This forms part of our commitment to deliver 30by30 under the Global Biodiversity Framework. Between 6 July and 28 September 2022 my department led a public consultation on five candidate HPMAs. The sites included two inshore: Allonby Bay (located in the Irish Sea) and Lindisfarne (Northern North Sea). The other three were offshore: North East of Farnes Deep (Northern North Sea), Inner Silver Pit South (Southern North Sea) and Dolphin Head (Eastern Channel). Over 900 responses to the consultation were received, and after carefully considering these and further evidence, including economic impacts, I will proceed with designating North East of Farnes Deep as set out in the consultation. For Allonby Bay and Dolphin Head, I will designate modified areas. I will not designate Lindisfarne, owing to the impacts on the local community raised during the consultation, nor Inner Silver Pit South, owing to the high costs to fishers identified during the impact analysis. The revised Allonby Bay HPMA boundary allows for an area of recreational angling, including access for disabled anglers, and for other activities to continue due to its importance to the community and takes account of the needs of Maryport Harbour and the Port of Silloth while still delivering important biodiversity benefits. The revised boundary for Dolphin Head is to improve compliance and enforcement. The new boundary still provides high ecological benefits, whilst straightening the western most point of the site boundary. These HPMAs will be designated as Marine Conservation Zones under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 by 6th July 2023. I have asked officials to explore additional sites for consideration this year. The Government Response will be available on gov.uk.